


Boketto

by archangelwithashotgun



Series: Tumblr Prompts [51]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Boketto, Caring Gabriel, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Hurt Sam, Fire, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Hell Flashbacks, Holding Hands, Human Castiel, Human Gabriel, Hurt Sam Winchester, M/M, One Word Prompts, Pre-Slash, Salt And Burn, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-10 09:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6949876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archangelwithashotgun/pseuds/archangelwithashotgun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Boketto (Japanese): the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking.</p>
<p>It happened during a regular salt-and-burn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boketto

It happened during a regular salt-and-burn.

Sam didn’t understand fully what happened. Fire hadn’t _really_ been an issue for him since Death had placed his soul back inside him. Granted, once he noticed that Dean had realized that Sam was fully back from Hell and no longer walking around soulless, his older brother started deviating towards taking charge on salt-and-burn cases, especially during the actual burning of the corpses. Sam didn’t mind at all, and let Dean do this for ease of mind.

But every time the match would flare up, or the lighter would spark, or the flames roared and grew high over the edge of the grave they dug, Sam really didn’t feel anything. The fire caused no reaction to arise from him.

It was just like before, when all they did was drive cross-country looking for ghosts and monsters to hunt. The same saddened weight in his chest over the poor soul who had been suffering this whole time, and the silent prayer that they would finally be at peace.

Tonight was different. Tonight it was Sam lighting the match.

He was with Gabriel in Fields Cemetery, racing against time. They received a short and panicked call from Castiel moment before that the ghost had arrived before had properly they set the salt barrier, and they could hear Dean being flung around the room in the background. Castiel bellowed a short “Hurry!” before a rush of wind pierced through the hearing device and the call went dead.

“Damnit, damnit, damnit!” Sam growled out, furiously scraping the match against the strip when it wouldn’t ignite.

Gabriel was beside him, eyes flitting around nervously as he kept trying to connect a call to Dean or Castiel’s cell phones with no luck. “Anytime now, stretch!” he exclaimed.

“Got it!” Sam said, right as the flame flared up in his hand.

That’s when it happened.

The white-hot flash of sudden light, the wave of heat near his fingers, the way the white hue of the flame diminished to a fiery orange glow—

Sam was entranced. But not in a positive way.

He zeroed in on the flame, and watched as it grew. The heat and the glow and the rapid flicker of the fire consumed him, devoured his mind… and he was back.

He was back in Hell.

The flame trickled down the match, and it licked at his finger.

Sam hissed sharply and whipped his arm back with a vicious jolt, letting go of the match. The lit stick fell through the air, into the grave, right on the gas-covered remains of the corpse within.

The flames leapt up with a crackling howl, and Sam stumbled back with the force of the heat that felt like a whip to his cheeks and with the intensity of the sea of light before him. The fire crashed against the dirt walls of its enclosure, fighting to reach the surface, to reach _Sam_.

Sam gaped at the inferno, jaw slack and eyes wide, and he froze.

Echoes of screams pulsed in his mind, dizzying him. The screeches of torture hidden in the furthest outreaches of his mind suddenly sprang to the forefront of his mind, and all he could see was fire, all he could _feel_ was _agony_.

And through the thick, fiery foliage of orange he could see the silhouette of a person. A woman. Oh God, she was burning, she’s _screaming_ and she’s _burning_. Panic, terror, dread, oh my God, oh my God, oh my—

“…m! _Sam!_ ”

And just as quick as he left, he was back, blinking dazedly at Gabriel who had suddenly appeared before him. The archangel’s brows were raised but furrowed, his amber eyes shining with concern and fluttering with terror. Behind him, the fire continued to crackle with life.

“Sam,” Gabriel said, placing his hands on Sam’s hand, firmly patting one of Sam’s cheeks with a cupped palm. “Talk to me, kiddo, are you alright?”

Sam blinked again, his vision and mind clearing gradually. The screams ebbed away, slipping through the cracks until they were a whisper inside of him.

“Sam!”

“I’m…” Sam started, his head nodding in tiny jerks in Gabriel’s grasp. “I’m… I’m sorry. How long have I—“

Gabriel sighed deeply in obvious relief, dropping his hands from Sam’s face. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for like the past five minutes, where the hell did you go?” Gabriel asked, a tinge of frantic anxiety still etched in his voice.

Sam clenched his jaw and tried not to wince at the unintentionally poor choice in wording. Swallowing roughly, Sam’s throat quivered as he met Gabriel’s eyes.

“Hell,” Sam replied in a choked murmur. “I was back in Hell.”

Gabriel gave a start, his eyes blowing wide.

“There was fire,” Sam continued, glancing over to the grave fire. The smell of burning corpse was tangible in the air by now, making his eyes sting. Or maybe there was another reason for that. “And there was… screaming. A lot of screaming. And… I was in Hell. This—This has never happened before, so… I dunno what—Just… I was in Hell.”

A thick silence fell between the two men following the hunter’s words. Sam met Gabriel’s gaping stare evenly without looking away, despite the fact that he felt like he was falling apart, that his insides were twisting and coiling and dissipating into ashes as well. Heat was on his face again, this time in the form of liquid, as tears trekked down his ashen face. Sam ignored them.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Sam muttered, the tears sliding past his lips.

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed as his entire expression softened visibly, and the archangel stepped forward, raising his hands up to once again cup Sam’s face, thumbs carefully wiping the hunter’s cheeks. Gabriel was shaking his head continuously, the golden orbs creating its own fire, a mixture of empathy and anger and fear sweeping through in a swirl of emotion.

Sam didn’t realize how much Gabriel’s eyes reminded him of fire.

“Don’t you dare apologize,” Gabriel said, his head still shaking. “Not for anything like this, okay?”

Sam exhaled sharply, sniffing as he dipped his head in a nod, forcing the remaining tears in his eyes to be kept at bay.

“Okay. Come on,” the archangel whispered above the faint crackle of the flames. “Let’s get out of here, yeah? Find that boneheaded brother of yours.”

Sam huffed out a breath of amused air, a smile tugging at his lips without his prompting. He nodded again, more enthusiastically this time. “Yeah,” he managed, swallowing repeatedly against the soreness of his throat. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” Gabriel grinned, slowly removing his hands from Sam’s face with one last sweep of his thumbs.

Before Sam could mourn the loss of contact, Gabriel stepped back and extended his arm out, offering his hand to the hunter. Gabriel smiled when Sam alternated confused glances towards Gabriel’s face and his hand.

“You don’t need to walk alone, y’know,” Gabriel suggested with a tiny shrug. “I can always come with you.”

The fire still roared in the grave, and it still consumed Gabriel’s eyes with a passion. But unlike the former, Sam found himself much more inclined to let himself get lost in Gabriel’s fire, inside the healing and purity of it. The archangel was correct. He didn’t have to walk alone.

Smiling, Sam took the offered hand, linking their fingers together. Gabriel’s smile widened, and together the two of them left behind the flames, hand-in-hand.


End file.
